Consquences For Your Actions
by Flash On A Bone
Summary: When Connie and Steven receive life changing news, they learn that there are consequences to everything you do. When tragedies continue to befall them, can they make this new life work? Rating will most definitely be raised later in the story, but for now it's T. Cross-posted on Archive Of Our Own.
1. Chapter 1

She remembers that night. Every single moment of it. The party, the spiked punch, the backseat of his car. The pain of losing her virginity. When she woke up the next morning, they told themselves that nothing would happen- she is on birth control, there was no way anything _could_ happen. They acted like it hadn't happened, and tried to go back to being friends. It worked- for the most part. There were awkward silences sometimes, but they had slipped back into their rhythm of friendship by the time three weeks had passed.

She also remembers the guilt. She had sworn to her parents that she wouldn't even _kiss_ anyone until she got married- and a lot more than kissing had happened that night in the back of his car. She doesn't tell them, of course. She doesn't tell anyone, and carries on with her life like she had never even gone to that party-

Until this morning.

She had woken up to the feeling of nausea, and had let go of last night's dinner in the toilet for five minutes straight. _This is the third day in a row... what's wrong with me_? When the vomiting finally ends and she is able to stand up, she dismisses it as something bad in the fridge, brushes her teeth, dodges her mother's questions about this nausea, and goes to school. The day goes by painfully slowly- a double period of world history and trigonometry. She finds it impossible to concentrate on anything and for this reason is glad for her lunch break- until the nausea comes back and as soon as she walks into the cafeteria, she is turning on her heel and making a mad dash for the girl's bathroom.

As soon as she gets there, she regrets ever waking up this morning. Tall, blonde Layla Simmons and her clique are standing there, blocking the door. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Little Miss Genius. Pass em' over."

"I don't have any test answers, will you please let me into the bathroom?"

"Bullshit." Another girl makes a grab for her messenger bag and she takes her chance and ducks through the hole that the other girl just opened in their barricade. She makes it to the toilet just in time to start dry heaving again. She realizes that she's forgotten to lock the bathroom door when Layla herself rips it open and grabs at the red shoulder bag. She pulls it backwards in an effort to search for answers, effectively choking the shorter girl.

"Let- go!"

"Give me the test answers!" Layla yanks on the bag even harder, and she feels her consciousness slipping away as she hurtles backwards and Layla lets out a high-pitched shriek of surprise. The last thing she remembers before blacking out is "Forget the answers, I think you finally killed her!"

* * *

Connie Maheswaran wakes on the cold bathroom floor, covered in blood. Someone is shaking her.

"Connie. Connie? CONNIE!" She groans at the pain in her stomach and neck, then opens her eyes. A girl she doesn't recognize is standing there. "Woah, are you hurt? You're covered in blood! You must have a really heavy period."

"Wha- who are you? How do you know my name?"

"Oh, um... I didn't introduce myself. I'm Lisa. We have the same trigonometry class? I sit in the back and never talk because I have no friends?" Connie sits herself up to get a better look at this Lisa. She has long red hair tied into a neat braid, and wears big, wire rimmed glasses. She has braces with purple bands, and Connie notices that she is sporting a nasty looking black eye.

"Oh. Um, hi. Thanks for waking me up, I guess. What happened to your eye?" Lisa looks terrified for a second, then smoothes out her features again.

"Fell down the stairs, I'm clumsy as hell. Forget about me, what happened to you?"

"Layla Simmons and her clique. They wanted answers to next week's trig test."

"Ah, that sucks. I'm sorry. Did they hit you in the stomach? That doesn't seem very effective for answers." Connie is confused. Why is she covered in blood?

"No, I don't know why I'm bleeding. They got my neck."

"Hmm. I dunno why either. Maybe you should go to the nurse. Want me to walk you?"

"No, I don't need to go. They'll call my parents and there'll be way too many awkward questions when I get home. What time is it?"

"You weren't out for that long, it's only 12:43. You might wanna try to get that blood off before you go to class though. I have some bloodstain remover in my bag, do you want it?" After gratefully accepting the chemicals and cleaning her clothes to the best of her ability and borrowing a pad from Lisa to control the bleeding, Connie runs off to her next class. The rest of the day goes by uneventfully.

* * *

The next day, Connie still can't shake the feeling that something is so very wrong. She has moved into the back row to sit closer to her new friend when it hits her-

The blood. She hasn't had her period in two months, and after yesterday's incident the trickle had tapered off completely after an hour. Lisa notices her facial expression and looks concerned. Connie shakes her head to signal that there isn't a problem, then loses herself in her thoughts. There's no way she's pregnant... right? Her period isn't all that regular, she's just being paranoid. Yup, paranoid. She is on birth control, there's no way any type of life at all could be growing inside of her. Nope, no chance.

 _Just in case, you need to check_... a voice in the back of her head keeps nagging. It sounds suspiciously like Pearl. Lisa corners her on the way out of the room half an hour later, looking concerned. "Are you ok? Did I do something wrong?"

"Nonononono, it's not you at all. I just have a lot of other stuff on my mind right now."

"Like what-" The warning bell rings and Connie makes her escape.

* * *

Steven Universe has never been so grateful for the Gems to leave him out of a mission. It leaves him alone to listen to the pounding rain and think. Inevitably, his mind wanders, once again, to the party six weeks ago. He still isn't sure what to think about it. They had both agreed that it had been a mistake and that it wasn't going to go any further, and they had slowly bounced back from it.

But he certainly hadn't wanted it to stop. He's been having an odd feeling ever since they first met over half a decade ago, and it's only been getting stronger over the years, but he still hasn't been able to figure out exactly what it is-

His thoughts are interrupted by a small, tentative knock on the screen door. He quickly gets up from his bed and descends the stairs, and is shocked by what he sees.

Connie Maheswaran is standing on the other side of the screen door, completely drenched to the bone. He swings the door open and pulls her in. "What the hell are you doing out in this weather?!"

"I- this was a stupid idea. I should go…"

"You can't go anywhere in this weather. It's not safe!" He wraps a towel around her shoulders and sits her on the couch. A few minutes later, he presses a steaming mug of tea into her hands. She ignores it

"Are the gems here?"

"Nope, just me." He frowns. "Connie, you're worrying me. What's on your mind?"

"I…" She falters, and looks at the door as though weighing her chance of bolting.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"Ithinkimpregnant." She blurts it so suddenly and quickly, Steven isn't quite sure if he has heard correctly.

"Wanna run that by me again?"

"I think I'm pregnant. I haven't had my period since, um… before. I'm so sorry. You don't need to have any part of its life if you don't want to. My parents are going to want me to have an abortion anyways-" Steven is shocked at this statement. He takes a minute to run it through his head.

It's definitely a possibility. They hadn't used protection, and he is well aware that birth control can fail sometimes. But as he realizes what Connie is saying, he looks at her in shock. "No."

"What?"

"Connie, I- listen. I don't know how this is gonna work but I want to try to make this happen if you _are_ pregnant. I don't know how any of this is going to happen, but we need to figure out if you're actually pregnant or not. But if you are pregnant, I don't want you to get an abortion… please."

"Ok." Connie seems to have calmed down significantly by now, and looks at Steven with a serious expression on her face. "How are we going to figure this out without my parents or the gems knowing?

Too late, they realize that they have failed to notice the glow of the warp pad. "Don't want us to know what?"


	2. Chapter 2

Connie flinches. How long had the Gems been standing there? How much did they know? Her entire train of thought on how to hide her predicament from them is derailed when Steven suddenly starts blurting out an answer.

"We... we were gonna go to Mom's fountain and get a jar of the healing stuff for Connie's mom to study!" The second he finishes, she doesn't have to look at them to know that they aren't buying it. Pearl, of course, is the first to speak.

"Hmm. Ok, what's really going on?"

"There's no need to lie to us." Peridot watches the exchange in silence.

"Yeah, spit it out!" Connie watches Steven deflate and accept defeat. She finally turns to look at the source of the voices, sees the hurt and worry- and in that moment, she knows that they need to be honest about their current situation. She looks back to the potential father of her child, sending him a silent message in her eyes. He nods. "Maybe you guys should sit..."

* * *

"I can't believe this, how could you two be so irresponsible? Especially you, Steven! You knew there would be nothing but alcohol at that party, and you chose to go anyways- and now look what's happened..." Amethyst is only half listening, too busy thinking about the current situation. A baby? Does that mean that Steven is going to leave like Rose did? She is lost in thought about this until Pearl snaps her fingers in the shorter gem's face. "Amethyst, were you even listening?!"

"Huh? Not really, sorry. Thinking." Pearl is glaring daggers, but Garnet saves Amethyst's skin by interjecting.

"That doesn't matter. What does matter is figuring this out. Connie, you said there was a chance that you're not pregnant?"

"It's an extremely small chance- not really worth considering. I should still make sure, though."

"How do you do that?"

"Um… they have home tests at the pharmacy that I could buy a few of."

"It's settled then. Steven, Connie, go get these tests and bring them back here. Amethyst will go with you." Steven, embarrassed and flustered, quickly gets up and walks out the door, Connie right behind him. As she leaves, Amethyst turns to look at her former mentors and one former enemy. Garnet is stoic as usual, but Pearl is fuming and is clearly still on edge after her outburst. Peridot simply looks confused.

She can't find it in herself to communicate her fear- but she can tell that they feel it too.

* * *

The walk to the pharmacy is intensely awkward, with nobody knowing what to say to each other. The tension is stifling, and Steven can't take it anymore. "So... Connie, we need a plan." The young woman in question looks up from her sneakers.

"We already started with the plan. The first step is to get these tests and get the results, and we'll figure out the rest of the plan after that." Steven is understandably hurt by her response, and his still-hopeful face falls. The rest of the walk happens in complete silence- it seems as though even breathing will make it worse, and the teenagers refuse to look at each other as they move. Amethyst shuffles along behind them.

Connie has never been so afraid of this behemoth of a building. As the automatic doors open, a feeling of dread settles in her stomach. She forces it down, and the three of them step in.

She immediately realizes that she doesn't know what aisle the tests are in, and groans. "Uh... shit."

"What's the matter?"

"I... um... I have no idea where they are." Chaos ensues as they split up, with Steven locating the small boxes in Aisle 14 eight minutes later. Connie gets a weird look from the cashier as she hands over the money and practically runs out of the store, blushing furiously.

* * *

When the trio returns to the house, Garnet and Pearl haven't moved from their seats, though Pearl appears to have calmed. An awkward silence ensues until Connie holds up the bag. "W-well, I guess I should go take these."

Peridot is curious. "How do they work?" Connie turns scarlet once again.

"I, um... I have to... pee on them." The tiny gem's reaction is immediate.

"Why?!"

Pearl interjects. "They test for a certain hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin, that's only produced during pregnancy."

"Oh."

Amethyst snickers. "Heh, you said gonad." With that matter settled, Connie disappears into the bathroom. Three minutes later, she steps out again with a plastic test in each hand.

"Now what?"

Steven scrambles to grab the instruction papers. "It says that we wait for two minutes." Steven, Connie, and the Gems all hold their breath in silence as they stare at the tests. No one dares to make a sound or move a muscle. The house is completely silent until Pearl quietly announces that it's been two minutes.

Though everyone reaches for them, Steven is the first to snatch up the pieces of plastic. He looks at them in confusion. "I... have no idea what these symbols mean." Connie grabs the instructions from the coffee table and reads through them.

"It says that if there are blue lines in both of the result windows, the test is positive." Wordlessly, he turns the tests so that everyone can see the results.

Both tests carry two horizontal blue lines.


	3. Chapter 3

Connie feels nauseated again. How had this happened? Why had this happened? She can't find the words to describe her feelings, and she hates it. She can't take this- the looks of anger, disappointment, and pity from the Gems. She can't breathe, can't process, can't deal with this horrible situation.

Without thinking it through, she does the worst thing possible-

She runs out the door, down the beach and far away from the Temple. The blood pounds in her ears and she can faintly hear Steven yelling for her to come back, but she can't face him anymore. On a rush of adrenalin, she runs up the hill, all the way to the very top of the lighthouse.

As soon as she stops running, the rush wears off and she collapses, passing out on the cold metal floor.

* * *

The first thing she hears as she wakes up is... talking?

"Is she okay? She's been out for a while."

"Shh, she's waking up!" She slowly opens her eyes to see Amethyst and Pearl standing over her. "Good mornin', sunshine!"

"That was quite the scare you gave us, Connie. Please don't do that again." As she comes to her bearings and examines the space around her, a cold sense of realization hits.

"Oh god... it wasn't a dream."

"Nope. Wanna go back to the house?"

"NO!" Both of the Gems flinch. "I... I don't want to see Steven right now."

"He's not there. When you ran up here, he grabbed Lion and disappeared. Garnet's looking for him-" Amethyst pulls out her phone and checks it- "nope. She hasnt found him yet."

Connie suddenly feels bile rise into her throat, and before she can stop it, she spews bIle all over the lighthouse floor. "Ugh..." Pearl produces a water bottle from her gem and hands it to the nauseated teenager. Once Connie puts it down, both of the aliens look at her expectantly.

She realizes, with a cold sense of dread, that they want to discuss her pregnancy. "Um..."

"How did this even happen?" Connie flushes.

"Uh... we were... um, drunk." Amethyst raises an eyebrow.

"Drunk enough to forget a condom?"

"Okay, you know what? I'm not talking with you about this."

Pearl sighs. "Connie, although I agree that Amethyst could be a little more... appropriate, I'm afraid that we have no choice but to discuss this with you now. What do you want to do?"

"I know that Steven doesn't want me to have an abortion-"

"It's not his choice."

"I know, but... he deserves to at least have his opinion in this." Connie hesitates for a long time before bringing up her next point. "I don't think I can keep it."

"Why not?"

"I have to finish high school, and there's no way I could possibly do that with a kid."

"Why not? We'd babysit while you attended school!" When Amethyst doesn't voice her agreement, Pearl nudges her with a sharp elbow.

"Yeah, we'd totally do that!" Amethyst mumbles, rubbing her side where the taller Gem's elbow had landed.

"Y-you would do that... for me?"

* * *

Garnet lies and tells Peridot she doesn't know where Steven is. The truth is that she knows exactly where he went- they just need to give him time to calm down before approaching him. With that in mind, Garnet and Peridot spend an hour searching five areas before they finally warp to Rose's Fountain. Steven is laying on the edge of the fountain on his back, absentmindedly petting Lion while staring at the statue in the center. Just as Peridot opens her mouth to speak, he beats her to it.

"This is one of those things where you think 'oh, this will never happen to me'... until it does."

"Steven-"

"I fucked up, Peri. I fucked up real bad, and nothing you say will change that." Garnet sighs and moves to sit with him on the edge of the fountain.

"Steven." He ignores her.

"Steven." He continues to act oblivious, and even though this was a possibility, she begins to lose her temper.

"Steven, come back to the house."

"WHY SHOULD I- hey!" Her anger grows even more, but she pushes it down and hauls the angry teenager over her shoulder. (After last year's true, human growth spurt, he no longer fits under her arm.) "Put me down!"

"No. You are coming home, and we are all going to discuss this. By the way, you're grounded for yelling at me."

"I can't go back yet. I can't face her."

"Connie?"

"No, Gwyneth Paltrow... of COURSE Connie!"

"Why not?"

"Ugh, Garnet... I GOT HER PREGNANT. She hates me."

"Steven, I can assure you that she does not hate you."

"How could you know th- oh."

"Future vision, Steven. There are exactly zero possibilities that end with her hating you." She puts him down.

"I have no idea what I'm going to do. I just... I never thought this would happen. I don't want her to get an abortion, but at the same time... it might be the only solution."

"You need to discuss this with Connie, not me." He sighs in defeat, and follows her to the warp pad.

* * *

Connie stares, shocked, at Pearl. Is she really being told to keep her baby- by Pearl, of anyone?

"We want to help you, Connie. You made a mistake, and you shouldn't have to forgo your education for that!" Amethyst's smartphone dings, and both Pearl and Connie look over.

"Garnet and Peri found Steven at Rose's fountain. They're warping back now."

"We should continue this discussion with them. Are you ready to go back, Connie?"

Connie sighs and stands up, watching as Pearl and Amethyst kick off into the sky towards the house. She follows them on foot, and Steven is already sitting on the couch by the time she walks in the door. She had prepared a discussion with him during her walk back, but her mind goes blank as she sees him. "Uh... hey."

"Hi." The silence is deafening until Garnet clears her throat, clearly wanting them to make a decision.

"Steven, I... I think I want to keep it." Her hand absentmindedly wanders to her stomach as she speaks. He notices, but chooses to stay silent.

"If this is what you want, I'll help you. I'm sorry." He sits in contemplation for a moment, then stands up. "We should talk to my dad and your parents."

"R-right now?!"

"Yeah. We have to tell them eventually. Why not get it over with?

"Ugh, fine. Let's go."

* * *

The drive to the car wash is surprisingly normal. Steven turns on the radio, and they both absentmindedly hum along to Heartbeat Song as they speed off towards Ocean City. Once the song ends, however, Connie begins to worry again. She turns the volume down to 0, prompting Steven to react. "What's up?"

"What are we even going to say, Steven? We can't just waltz up to your dad or my parents and say 'hey, we're having a kid at 17, effectively preventing us from finishing school or going to college or pretty much doing anything with our lives in the future! Yay!'"

"Connie, you're spiraling..."

"THIS IS A VERY GOOD REASON TO SPIRAL, STEVEN!"

"Stop yelling at me! You can finish school, I said I'd help you with that!"

"What about you finishing, or getting a job, or anything?!"

"We-"

"NO, Steven, this isn't a 'cross that bridge when we get there' situation! This a CHILD we're talking about here, not just some problem that has a clear solution! You're not taking this seriously at all- it's like you don't even-" She stops as she realizes the implications of what she's saying, but it's too late. He grips the steering wheel so tightly that Connie is suddenly worried he'll break it.

"Like I don't even WHAT, Connie?" He pulls over to the side of the road and glares at her. "I just want to help. You've been yelling at me and running away all day, and I've taken it because you're my friend and that's what friends DO. They let each other work through their issues. After all of today's events, the least you could do is finish. Your. SENTENCE!"

Connie is overwhelmed with guilt. She has pushed her only friend, the sweetest and kindest person ever, to the point of yelling at her. "S-Steven, I'm... I'm s-sorry. I was wrong, okay? You do care. I s-shouldn't have said that."

He doesn't answer immediately, and she fears the worst. He silently pulls back onto the road. "Let's just get this over with." Connie cringes, knowing just how badly she's messed up.


End file.
